


You were the brightest shade of sun (I had ever seen)

by to_dwellondreams1



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 04:35:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5729707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/to_dwellondreams1/pseuds/to_dwellondreams1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver and Felicity try to deal with the repercussions of her accident. </p><p>4x10 fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You were the brightest shade of sun (I had ever seen)

Felicity is lying in her hospital bed, staring mindlessly at the muted television screen mounted on the wall, when Oliver quietly closes the door to her room behind him with a soft click. 

It doesn't matter how silent he is though, he's afraid that he could bang the door against the wall with his full force and she still wouldn't turn her eyes to look at him. 

It’s been over two weeks since the accident, a week since she’d woken up, and six days since he’d heard her speak. And he missed her voice, so much. 

He didn’t realize how much he had become dependent on her voice during the past three years, and now, without it, he feels like he’s back on the island.

Deprived of his basic needs for survival, cast out into the sea with his only source of relief inaccessible. Except now, all of those needs came from a woman whose smile, laugh, and touch felt more vital to him than water or food ever had. 

Ever since the doctor’s told her that the damage to her spine was permanent she’d been silent, closing in on herself, refusing to let Oliver, her mother, or anyone in to the pain that he knew was consuming her. 

And it terrified him, more than he was comfortable admitting, because he knew what it felt like to be consumed by that pain, by that darkness, and with each day that passed, he felt her slipping through his fingers. Saw the light around her dimming as she sank deeper into herself. 

But he refused to let go, refused to give an inch to the string he was using to cling to her, because he knew she would do the same for him, had done the same for him, and despite the fissure in his heart that deepened each day she locked him out, he had no plans to stop fighting for her. 

Each day he brought something new from home that she loved; pictures, books, movies, and his shirt that she loved to sleep in, hoping that these memories of their life together would bring her back to him. 

So far, he had been unsuccessful. 

“Hey,” he says softly as he makes his way across the room to her bedside, dropping the bag in his hands to the ground before brushing the hair away from her forehead and dropping a kiss on her soft skin, breathing her in deeply before stepping back. 

She glances up at him and gives a small jerk of her head in response to his greeting before sliding her eyes back to the television. 

He frowns as he see’s the look on her face, though; there’s a an emptiness in her eyes that hasn’t been there previously and the possibilities of what that look mean nearly stop his heart. 

“Hey, Felicity. Look at me,” he says, cradling her face in his hands, feeling dampness on her cheeks that could have only come from one thing. She had been crying. 

She shifts her head to the side, trying to break his delicate hold, but his hands don’t budge as he begs, “Please, tell me what’s wrong.”

She lets out a short, bitter laugh as she stops fighting his hold. “What’s wrong? What do you think is wrong?”

“I… I’m paralyzed, Oliver. I’m never going to walk again.” His heart rips in two as her voice cracks on the last word, and tears finally spill down her cheeks. 

“Felicity,” he says softly, choosing his words carefully before he continues, “I can’t even begin to imagine how you’re feeling right now, but I am here for you… we are all here for you. I’m not going anywhere and I will be here every step of the way.”

She holds his gaze for a moment before she closes her eyes and whispers, “No, you won’t.”

He’s taken aback at her words, sure he heard incorrectly. “Wh—what? Of course, I will be. Felicity, what are you talking about?”

“I said you won’t be, because…” she takes a deep breath, as if it’s going to take all her strength to get her next words out, “we can’t be together anymore.”

He freezes at her words, white noise filling his ears as the reality of what she’s saying washes over him. No, this isn’t right he had to have misheard her.

No.

She uses his moment of weakness to her advantage as she finally shakes her head free of his hands. He immediately feels her warmth leave his body, filling him with a dread he’s never known before.   
His hands fall limply to his sides as he shakes his head. “Felicity, no, you don’t… you don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I do know what I’m saying, Oliver,” she cuts out sharply, pushing herself up into a higher sitting position on the bed. “I’m doing you a favor, you didn’t sign up for this.” She sweeps her hands over her legs in emphasis, as if that proves her point.

As if he should take her words at face value and leave her, as if just because she can no longer walk that their relationship should be over.

As if she isn’t the only person, thing, which has kept him fighting for the past two years. 

As if he won’t crumble without her by his side, guiding him, offering him the only source of light that brought him out of the darkness that consumed him for nearly seven years. 

He won’t let her do this.

“Felicity, do you really think that I would leave you because of this? That just because you can’t walk that I love you any less?” He can’t keep the frustration that fills his voice out due to the implication of her previous words. How could she doubt his feelings for her?

“No, I don’t,” she replies, equally as frustrated, “and that is exactly why I am doing this. Ending it, before I become a burden.”

“What?” he asks, stunned. That was what she thought, that she was a burden?

“Felicity,” he whispers softly, moving to grab her hand, but she pulls it away too quickly, moving it up to wipe the tears leaking from her eyes.

“Please don’t, Oliver,” she begs, turning her eyes towards him, “don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

This time he ignores the way she tries to escape him and grasps her small hand in his own, “It doesn’t have to be hard, Felicity, because I’m not leaving you.”

She chokes down a sob before she continues, “but you have to. I don’t want you to resent choosing me when this gets too hard. You already have so much on your plate…you’re running for Mayor in the morning and being the Arrow at night, and I used to be someone who could lessen that burden, but now I can’t!” Her words become more frantic the longer she goes on.   
“I can’t—I can’t let that happen, Oliver, I—“, he brings his lips down on her own before she can continue any further, and her tears mingle with his own as he holds her to him before slowly breaking their kiss and laying his forehead against her own.

“Felicity, you need to listen to me, you will never be a burden to me, and I will never regret loving you and taking care of you.”

“But--,” she starts, and he cuts her off again forcefully, stomach clenching at the pain in her voice. 

“No buts, Felicity. How many years have you been taking care of me, huh? How many times have you pulled me from the brink? This isn’t any different.” 

He moves to cup her tear stained face delicately in his hands as he smiles down at her. “Felicity, you’ve been the brightest thing in my life these past three years, I don’t… I don’t even know where I would be if you hadn’t babbled your way into my heart. You are my happy story, Felicity, and now it’s time for me to do the same for you. I promised in sickness and in health when I asked you to marry me, and I don’t plan on backing out of this promise.”

Tears stream faster down her face as he finishes his speech and his eyes widen in panic and he opens his mouth to ask her what’s wrong before he sees a smile appear on her lips, the first one he’s seen in over two weeks, and she opens her arms to him.

He moves quickly to gather her in his arms, grasping her more tightly when she wraps her arms around his neck and places her face in the crook of his shoulder. He turns his head and breathes her in deeply. Home, he thinks as he continues to hold her, her weight anchoring him to the world he’s felt so disconnected from since her accident.

“I love you,” she murmurs quietly into his neck, her warm breath sending a shiver up his spine.

He turns to place a kiss on her head. “I love you, too. So much.”

She pulls back slightly, running her fingers across his over grown stubble. “You really think we can do this?” she asks hesitantly, her eyes searching his for any sign of doubt.

She won’t find any.

“I know we can,” he replies, his voice sure and steady.

She gives him another smile before pulling him closely once again, and he obliges. It’s time for him to be strong for her, and if Felicity has taught him anything, it that’s they’re stronger together, in the light, and that’s exactly where he plans to keep her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments/critiques are always appreciated! <3


End file.
